‘Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?’

, at present, is the seat of the First Presidency: the place of the [HC 6:63] gathering for all saints, and the great centre of the world for pure religion, revelation, truth, virtue, knowledge and every thing else preparatory to the coming of the son of man: the best news, the best people, and the best plan of salvation must be there, Wherefore,

Resolved, unanimously, that the travelling elders are hereby instructed to use due diligence in obtaining subscribers for the Times and Seasons, and Nauvoo Neighbor and forward the pay, by safe hands, to the publishers at , that the Saints and the world may receive ‘line upon line, and precept upon precept; here a little and there a little,’ together with such extracts of translations and Revalations, as the Presidency of the church may direct, for the edification of the whole body of the church, in righteousness.

Done in Council, at . November 1843.

“Ship Timoleon, North Atlantic Ocean Nov 4. 1843. Lat. 20o 15', Lon. 25o 19' West from Greenwich.

I expect ’ere this reaches you, brother will deliver you the letter and articles I sent you by him, with the $8.00 in cash, I expect he has told you the state of Bro. Hanks’ health when he left us, the reason I never wrote you the particulars of his health was, because he did not wish to have his friends know the worst. I did not see him from the time I left them at Evansville till he comes to me at Winchester. At first sight of him there I saw he had failed materially, and I was bed-fellow with him; my heart often ached to hear the deep rooted cough as it racked his whole frame. I kept a bed vessel with some fresh water in it and what he raised from his lungs would sink in it like lumps of clay; this indicated to me that short of the immediate interposition of Divine Providence, nothing would save him from a premature grave. On his passage from to he seemed to recruit [illegible], but from to New Bedford he, with , took passage in a packet: the weather was rough and they were both sea sick; by being exposed to the sea air together with his sea sickness his disease took a regular downward course, from which I had but little hopes of his recovering recovery. When I met him at Winchester, the kind attention and anxious solicitude which sister Abigail and the rest of the family took in his welfare, seemed to recruit him [illegible] a little.

When we took stage for , our friends in Winchester, with myself [p. 1761]